581-pound Bear Bagged In Pike County Outdoors

November 26, 1985|by TOM FEGELY, The Morning Call

Sunny skies greeted more than 85,000 orange-clad hunters yesterday for the annual black bear season opener in 45 Pennsylvania counties. The state game commission forecast a kill of 1,000 bruins prior to yesterday, the number that biologists determined would keep the population in balance with available food and habitat.

As of last night harvest figures were running below those tallied during the same periods in 1983 and 1984 when more than 1,500 bears were tagged in the two-day hunt.

The biggest bear reported from the northeast sector of the state was shot by Gary Hazen of Stroudsburg. He downed a 581-pound male while hunting in the Porter Township area of Pike County, near Elbow Swamp.

Hazen, 34, said that this was his first chance at a bear in 14 years of hunting. Using a .270 Remington, Hazen needed three shots to down the large bruin, hitting a tree the second time he squeezed the trigger on the running bear which had emerged from a dense swamp.

Hazen's hunting partners, Brad Bergman and Robert Smith, both of East Stroudsburg, also scored kills from the same area. Bergman's bear weighed 380 pounds while Smith's scaled out at 166 pounds. All three of the bears were males and were weighed prior to field-dressing.

Gary Alt, the Pennsylvania Game Commission's chief black bear biologist, said that Hazen's trophy was "probably 10 years old or older" but that certification could not be made until a later date when computer files are analyzed.

Alt said that the bear will "definitely make the Pennsylvania record book and will stand a chance for a national Boone & Crockett listing." Entries into both record books are determined by skull measurements following a 30-day drying period.

Hazen said that the meat will be utilized and the trophy will be taken to a taxidermist today.

Strangely, upon checking the inner lip region of the animal, where tagged bears are given a permanent tattoo upon capture by biologists, Alt discovered that the "number series" of Hazen's bear was among those recorded in Centre County prior to 1979.

Alt was at a loss to explain the appearance of the bear in Pike County, more than 125 geographical miles away. He said that later this week a computer check will be done to determine the bear's true origin and when it was tagged as a cub.

Although the numbers of bears brought to check stations at Shohola and Tobyhanna as of 8 p.m. last night were below the tallies in the same period during the previous two years, game commission officials would not comment on the possibility of extending the season an additional day should a kill of less than 800 bruins be recorded statewide. Dick Fagan, supervisor for the commission's Northeast region, said that the opening day kill figures for the 45 counties will not be available until late this morning.

"At that time," said Fagan, "we'll decide on whether or not to allow hunting on Wednesday." Announcements pertaining to the extended hunt will be made available to newspapers, and radio and television stations late today.

Fagan noted that a decision will be based "on the total reported kill, not on the basis of whether or not the weather was bad," resulting in a low harvest. Although inclement weather was forecast for today, yesterday's skies were clear and the weather ideal for hunting.

According to the commission's sales of $10 bear permits, total hunter numbers have dropped by 15-20 per cent over the past three years. However, vehicles parked along secondary roads leading through the forested regions of Pike, Monroe and Carbon counties indicated a good turnout yesterday. In some places, such as the entrance trails to the Bruce Lake Wilderness Area near Promised Land, minor traffic jams occurred as cars lined both sides of the roadway.

Alt said that the bears brought to the mandatory check stations were in excellent physical condition. "There's plenty to eat," Alt told a group of hunters who left the woodlands early to watch weigh-in proceedings at the Shohola Lake Check Station. "There's plenty of acorns, beechnuts and black cherries and the blueberry crop this year was fantastic."

Thus far in 1984 the game commission has made settlements of $29,558to property owners who verified bear-related damages to beehives, livestock or other property.

Alt said that pre-season surveys showed that as much as 50 per cent of the population of female bruins may already be denned and unavailable to hunters. "Some of the bears in above-ground sites may shift to another location but most of them will stay where they are through the winter," said Alt.

Area hunters who reported kills to check stations at Shohola and Tobyhanna include: